


Glass Eyes and a Wooden Tail

by ElegantButler



Category: Max Headroom (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-27 15:57:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15688659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElegantButler/pseuds/ElegantButler
Summary: Following a violent death, Bryce Lynch takes an unexpected form determined to protect his friends and avenge his death.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1...

They watched the boy burn in satisfied silence.

He'd screamed at first, bound at the wrists and ankles. Screamed until the flames had filled his mouth and burnt away his tongue .

When nothing but ashes remained the four men, satisfied that the deaths of their loved ones had ben avenged, turned and left in silence.

Behind them, the ashes spiraled like a dust devil and began to take on a new shape.

Soon a female figure stood, like a phoenix from the ashes. Clearly human, but also alien. She had the face of a woman around the same age as Edison Carter. The frame of her body was slender, her skin pale, but not pink nor white. Instead it was a light shade of golden brown, the color of a tree stripped of its bark.

She was naked, but if she had nipples or anything worth blushing about, they were almost invisible.

At any rate, those things would be easily missed while anyone who saw her stared in shock at her glass eyes and wooden tail.


	2. The Passenger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Edison searches for Bryce's killers, the entity Bryce has become joins the hunt.

Chapter 2: The Passenger

  
  


Edison Carter hurried into the control room as Theora checked her computer for anything that Edison could turn into a hot story.

 

“Anything?” Edison asked.

 

“Zik Zak’s newest shop was broken into last night…” Theora offered.

 

“Anything of interest stolen?” Edison inquired.

 

“Just the usual,” Theora admitted.

 

“What else?” Edison wouldn’t follow a break-in unless something other than clothing, money and jewelry was taken or a night watchman was kidnapped.

 

Theora scrolled down further. “There’ve been three assassinations at maj…” she began. Alarm spread over her face as she brought up a view of Bryce’s studio.

 

She could see it was even more a mess than that caused by a teenager, genius or otherwise. The chair was overturned and the door was wide open.

 

“Please,” she whispered, running a securicam trace and watching as he was dragged from his studio and set ablaze. She swiftly turned off the scene, not wishing to watch anyone die so horribly, especially a friend. “No. Oh dear Lord, no.”

 

Edison had also seen, and was grateful when Theora had turned it off. He wanted to throw up. Wanted to track down the men who’d killed his friend, to burn them in the same way.

 

“Track their vehicle,” Edison said. “Send me their location.”

 

He rushed to the helipad while Theora checked for any vehicle emissions near the garage in the past several minutes.

 

Finding what she was looking for, she fed the data to Martinez and Edison’s links.

  
  


At the same time, the female figure with the glass eyes and wooden tail was racing up the stairwell that led from the garage to the helipad. She leapt up the steps, taking them with the grace of a wildcat, her movements frenetic as she raced to reach her goal before Martinez could take off. 

 

Edison reached the helipad and practically threw himself into the chopper. 

 

“Big story?” Martinez asked.

 

“Shut the hell up,” Edison said as they lifted off. “They killed Bryce.”

 

Martinez’s face fell. “Bryce Lynch? Why? What the hell did he do?”

 

“I don’t know,” Edison said, angrily. “Just follow the bastards.”

 

They felt the helicopter shudder as something collided with it.

 

“What the hell?” Martinez shouted as he brought the bird back under control. “Can you see if there’s any damage on your side?”

 

Edison peered outside and drew back in astonishment.

 

There was a naked female… something… crouched low on the skid. Long, threadlike tendrils snaked out of her body, wrapping around the skid to keep her from falling off. Behind her, a wooden tail as supple as the branches of a weeping willow, lashed back and forth like that of an angry cat.

 

Seeming to sense that she was being observed, the figure turned to look at Edison, her glass eyes flashing at him in a look of both camaraderie and warning.

 

“Theora,” Edison said, as he turned his vidicam toward the strange stowaway. “What do you make of her?”

 

Theora looked at the female in question for a moment. “There’s something familiar about her.”

 

“You  _ know _ this woman?” Edison exclaimed.

 

Theora laughed despite the circumstances. “I don’t think so. But she does nag at my mind somehow.”

 

“You don’t suppose she’s Bryce do you?” Martinez suggested. “I’ve heard legends of people who died violently taking new forms to avenge their murders.”

 

“In fairy tales,” Edison pointed out. “Not in the everyday world.”

 

“I think we kissed the everyday world goodbye when  _ she _ joined us,” Martinez replied.

 

Edison had no answer for that.

 

They flew on, their passenger turning her head back around to glare balefully into the distance with her glass eyes as her wooden tail continued to lash from side to side like a whip.

 


	3. Chapter 3

###  Chapter 3:  Revenge

 

As the helicopter flew on, the creature struck Edison’s door with the tip of her tail.

 

Edison looked over at her as she pointed down at a dark blue van that was heading down a nearby street.

 

“I think she’s found them,” he told Martinez. “Two streets northeast.”

 

“Tell her to hang on,” Martinez said as he banked the chopper to correct its heading in order to pursue the van carrying the men who’d killed Bryce.

 

“I don’t think she’s going anywhere,” Edison assured him.  “Get low, let’s see if we can get a license plate number.”

 

As the chopper went as low as it could, the creature narrowed her glass eyes and tensed. 

 

“Tell me she’s not going to…” Edison began.

 

But before he could finish, she did.

 

With preternatural speed and agility, she leapt from the skid and landed on the roof of the van, wrapping her tendrils around the roof-rack as she began to strike the roof angrily with her tail.

 

Edison wondered what the men in the van were thinking of the commotion coming from the top of their van. 

 

“She’s really pissed, isn’t she?” Martinez remarked as the creature continued to make herself known to her killers.

 

The window of the van’s passenger side door opened. The man in the passenger seat made the mistake of leaning part way out to see who was causing all the ruckus. 

 

The being who had once been Bryce Lynch leaned down so that her face was inches away from his.

 

The man had just enough time to scream “Vitrum Oculus!” when her eyes suddenly flashed, causing him to suddenly explode.

 

Edison, who’d witnessed the event, stared at her in horror. “What on Earth?”

 

“Maybe it’s some form of the Blipvert Effect?” Martinez offered.

 

“No,” Edison said. “Blipverts only work on perpetual viewers. Active people aren’t affected. But it might be something similar.”

 


End file.
